Don’t be Fooled the Accommodations Do Matter

Let me lay it on the line. You know that pretty young thing at the travel agency trying to get you to book a nice cruise for you and your sweetie? Well she has only one job. That job is to sell you a vacation and she will say whatever it takes to get you to sign on the dotted line.

Yeah, I know how it works. While I have never been in the vacation industry I have been in sales and have seen the way most salespeople work. If you think they are your friends you are mistaken.

With the explosion in demand for cruises, travel agents are booking passengers at rates that were unheard of even 10 years ago and the cruise lines want you on their boats. It’s how they make money. But that doesn’t mean that every cruise is sold out and booked solid either. That’s why you get all those nice “last minute” deals advertised and why they push so hard.

My wife and I are now veteran cruisers and in my honest opinion nothing beats a good cruise when it comes to price and what you get in return. Well, maybe not quite nothing ... the week in Aruba on our honeymoon was at least close. But when we started cruising we really weren’t sure if we would like it. I remember that in 2003 we booked a short 5 day trip and the first words out of the travel agent’s mouth when discussing the price was that the quality of the cabin didn’t matter much and that we could save money by downgrading our room.

The theory was that because you don’t spend much time in your room because of all the neat stuff on board and in port who really cared what the cabin looked like. Right? Of course she was promoting this line of reasoning because at the time price really was an issue for us. And you know what? It sounded like really good reasoning because of all the great stuff that was going on around the boat what seemed like all the time.

Of course I still needed a view so we did wind up booking an outside cabin with a full window but not before seriously considering an interior cabin on a lower deck to save a few bucks. So we waited for the date of our first cruise, over packed like all first time cruisers do, and arrived at our ship. That is when we got some really great news which all cruisers love to hear. That news comes in just one word; “upgraded”!

Because we had booked our cruise as our anniversary, and because Carnival apparently had a demand for the level of cabin that we booked, they bumped us up to the Veranda deck into a balcony room with an obstructed view that they apparently couldn’t sell.

When we got to the room we immediately found it much more enjoyable, perhaps just from the excitement of being given this nice little bonus. And even though there was a dingy outside a third of our small balcony we were extremely happy. But for my own piece of mind I wanted to compare the cabin we wound up in with the cabin we had booked and even the interior one we had briefly considered. I wanted to know if we were really “upgraded” or not.

So over the next couple hours I explored a little since there really wasn’t much to do while sill anchored at the docks waiting for the ship to depart. I found the room next to the room that we had originally booked open, as the occupants were moving in, and took a quick peek. It was smaller and more cramped, but not bad. And then I went down to the lower deck where we had thought about getting the interior cabin.

There I found one of those rooms open and was able to take a glance at the dark room lit by light bulbs without a hint of natural light. I also noticed how much smaller it was than the balcony room we now had and remember thinking about how I would go bonkers in such a space if I had to spend any amount of time in there at all even if it was just to sleep. We certainly wouldn’t have thought of ourselves as chattel in such a room but it would have been darn close to that feeling especially when I realized on the day of the first port of call that everyone was lined up in the hallway on that deck (right in front of the rooms) waiting for their turn at the gangway.

I remembered what the travel agent had said to me; I wouldn’t be spending much time in my cabin right? Let me tell you, good thing we didn’t book that interior cabin! One thing I learned on my first cruise was that you probably will spend more time in your room than just sleeping and changing clothes.

Yeah, sitting by the pool was nice. Sure, going to the sports bar and watching my Steelers on the satellite with about 50 other people was great. And yeah, even just strolling around the ship learning where everything was and taking in the new experience was fine and dandy. But one thing I liked was being able to retire to my cabin and relax without anyone else around. I admit I like my “me time”. After all, there are only so many 250 pound women in bikinis that one can stand to look at on deck.

The balcony certainly helped with that and I loved sitting outside as the ship was between ports in the Caribbean sun. Yeah, I liked it even if the balcony was partially blocked by that darn dingy.

Over the course of the cruise, much of which was spent at the Blackjack table, I generally found that when I talked to other people on the ship that those who were complaining the most were those on the lower decks, in the smaller cabins and that mostly they complained about the size of their accommodations. Hey, a standard balcony room isn’t luxurious in terms of size but at least I was happy unlike many others in the bowels of the ship and to this day I am convinced that the majority of those hanging around the pool day after day were people dissatisfied with their accommodations.

Apparently size does matter and so does quality. Because when I would tell people that I could just go out on my balcony, small as it was, the response was almost a universal wish for that themselves.

Yeah, you’re going to pay more for the nicer cabin. And maybe if you are the type of person that envisions yourself backpacking around Europe and roughing it, you might like the cramped accommodations some cheaper cabins afford you. But for me and my wife there has been no turning back. Each year when we go on cruise it is a room with a view and a balcony for us or nothing because quality does matter. And since I like to work while on cruise I like a little privacy when I need to fire up the old laptop.

But it is important to remember in closing that every ship is different. Older and smaller ships tend to be more cramped. Newer ships tend to have better overall accommodations on all levels. So do a little research. Most cruise lines have plenty of pictures of what each level of cabin looks like.

And whatever you do, do not buy into that old line that the quality of the cabin doesn’t matter because you won’t be spending much time there. You’ll probably spend more time there than you realize. So get something you are sure you can live with for as many days you are planning on being at sea.

And whatever happens, I don’t want to hear you grumbling about how you don’t like that inexpensive cabin in the bowels of the ship the travel agent conned you into booking to save a few bucks.